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Leather-like sheet and method for production thereof

a technology of leather-like sheets and sheets, applied in the field of leather-like sheets, can solve the problems of monotonous appearance, poor three-dimensional appearance, unsatisfactory material for producing commercial products with high-grade appearance, etc., and achieve the effect of good feel, poor three-dimensional feel, and poor quality

Active Publication Date: 2008-12-09
KURARAY CO LTD
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides a leather-like sheet that has good surface abrasion resistance and an elegant three-dimensional appearance. The sheet comprises a napped part of ultrafine fibers and a grainy part of nonporous elastic polymer randomly existing in the surface of a substrate. The nonporous elastic polymer is infiltrated into the substrate to a depth of from 5 to 20 μm from the surface of the substrate. The grainy part in the sheet comprises substantially the ultrafine fibers and the nonporous elastic polymer randomly existing therein. The areal ratio of the grainy part to the napped part on the surface of the sheet is from 90 / 10 to 50 / 50. The surface abrasion loss of the sheet is at most 10 mg in 10,000 cycles in a Martindale method. The invention also provides a method for producing the leather-like sheet.

Problems solved by technology

Specifically, their appearance is monotonous with no three-dimensional and solid feel, and they are unsatisfactory as a material for producing commercial products with high-grade appearance.
These produce some interesting appearances, but the embossed pattern formed by these could not substantially have leather-like roughness of valleys and hills and therefore could not express a satisfactory three-dimensional appearance and, in addition, its abrasion resistance is not good.
This is effective in some degree for improving the fluff-dropping resistance and the pilling resistance of napped fibrous materials for clothes, but is still impracticable for automobile sheets and interiors that often receive strong abrasion.
In this case, however, the ultrafine fibers are firmly bonded to the polymer elastomer and the artificial leather produced could hardly have a soft hand like a natural leather-like.
However, this is defective in that the hand of the artificial leather produced is hard.
Another problem with it is that, if the amount of the polymer elastomer to be applied to the fibrous sheet is reduced so as to make the processed sheet have a soft hand, then the surface abrasion resistance of the artificial leather produced lowers.
As mentioned hereinabove, the conventional suede-like artificial leather may have a surface appearance like a natural suede with three-dimensional high-quality expression and a soft hand, but could not have good surface abrasion resistance durable to long-term use for automobile sheets and interiors.

Method used

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Examples

Experimental program
Comparison scheme
Effect test

example 1

[0055]An intermingled nonwoven fabric of bicomponent fibers comprising polyethylene terephthalate (island component) and polyethylene (sea component) and having a fineness of 6 dr was dipped in a DMF solution of 14% polyether polyurethane, and then dipped in an aqueous solution of DMF to solidify the polyurethane.

[0056]Next, this was processed in toluene to dissolve and remove polyethylene from the fibers. After the removal, the intermingled nonwoven fabric was dried at 140° C. with tentering it by 10% to the nonmoven fabric. Porous polyurethane was thus infiltrated into the three-dimensionally intermingled nonwoven fabric of ultrafine fiber bundles of polyethylene terephthalate (having a mean single fiber fineness of 0.02 dtex), and the resulting substrate had a thickness of 1.3 mm and a unit weight of 470 g / m2.

[0057]Using a 200-mesh gravure roll, a mixed solvent of DMF / cyclohexanone (50 / 50) was applied to one surface of the substrate, and its amount was 18 g / m2. Thus coated, the s...

example 2

[0060]A leather-like sheet was produced in the same manner as in Example 1, for which, however, the warm water treatment with dyeing was effected by the use of a jigger dyeing machine. Regarding its dimension based on the original dimension before the dyeing treatment, the sheet produced herein was shrunk by 3% in the machine direction and by 6% in the cross direction. Using a crumpling machine that simulates hand crumpling, this was mechanically crumpled to be a leather-like sheet.

[0061]In the surface of the thus-obtained leather-like sheet, the areal ratio of the grainy part of the nonporous elastic polymer to the napped part of the ultrafine fibers, grainy part / napped part was 65 / 35, and every circular area having a diameter of 1 mm contained both the napped part and the grainy part. The leather-like sheet was a nubuck-type one having a three-dimensional solid appearance with natural-leather like shrinks and having a soft and high-quality feel. Observing the cross section of the ...

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Abstract

The leather-like sheet of the invention comprises a napped part of ultrafine fibers and a grainy part of nonporous elastic polymer randomly existing in the surface of a substrate prepared by infiltrating a porous polymer elastomer into a three-dimensionally intermingled nonwoven fabric of ultrafine fibers of not more than 0.5 dtex, and this is characterized in that the nonporous elastic polymer is infiltrated into the substrate to a depth thereof of from 5 to 20 μm from the surface of the substrate.The production method of the invention is for producing a nubuck-type leather-like sheet of good surface abrasion resistance. A grainy part of resin and ultrafine fibers and a part of the ultrafine fibers are mingled on the surface of the substrate, and the sheet has an elegant and three-dimensional appearance like natural leather.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD[0001]The present invention relates to a leather-like sheet and a method for production thereof, in particular, to a nubuck-type leather-like sheet for automobile sheets and interiors, which is resistant to surface abrasion and has a soft and high-grade surface touch and a three-dimensional appearance, and to a method for production thereof.BACKGROUND ART[0002]Various proposals have heretofore been made for grain type leather-like sheets, and various materials have been produced for them. Many of these have a patterned indented surface of embossed pattern, therefore lacking difference of a glossy feel and a color tone. Specifically, their appearance is monotonous with no three-dimensional and solid feel, and they are unsatisfactory as a material for producing commercial products with high-grade appearance. Recently, improving these have been repeatedly tried, and various proposals have been made for them.[0003]One proposal is to make the valleys of an embossed pattern...

Claims

the structure of the environmentally friendly knitted fabric provided by the present invention; figure 2 Flow chart of the yarn wrapping machine for environmentally friendly knitted fabrics and storage devices; image 3 Is the parameter map of the yarn covering machine
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Application Information

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Patent Type & Authority Patents(United States)
IPC IPC(8): B32B33/00D06N3/00
CPCD06N3/0004D06N3/004Y10S428/904Y10T428/2395Y10T428/23986Y10T442/601Y10T442/614Y10T442/647D06N3/00
Inventor YAMASAKI, TSUYOSHIANDOH, HIDEKAZUTAMBA, YOSHIHIRO
Owner KURARAY CO LTD
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